Access to the General Curriculum for Students with Significant Disabilities: What it Means to Teachers

By M. Agran, S. Alper, M. Wehmeyer. Education and Training in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, 2002

198 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The 1997 amendments to IDEA mandated that individualized education programs of students with disabilities include information about student's participation and progress in the general curriculum. Although there is general agreement with the intent of the access to the general curriculum mandates to ensure that students with disabilities are held to high expectations, receive a challenging curriculum, and are included in the accountability mechanisms being created for all students, there are some concerns as to potential negative effects of unintended consequences from components of school reform efforts, to which the access mandates are linked. One variable that remains unknown, and which can affect the success of the mandates, is the opinion of teachers about this policy direction. The present survey obtained opinions of a sample of teachers on issues relating to access to the general curriculum. The findings suggested that the majority of respondents believed that access is not appropriate for students with severe disabilities and that these students should not be held to the same performance standards as typical peers. Additionally, the study revealed that a number of teachers were not actively involved in planning relating to access, and that almost half of their districts did not have a clear policy on this issue. Implications of these findings to promote student participation in the general curriculum are presented.

Subfields: Education, Safety Research

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ff6fde438e7d99691dcae20c83ef501c5b9d99ea

How researchers see this paper

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In Education

1. M. Wehmeyer
2. E. Carter
3. Susan B. Palmer
4. D. Browder
5. Lynn G. Sisco
6. M. Agran
7. Andrea L. Ruppar
8. C. Kennedy

In Safety Research

1. M. Wehmeyer
2. E. Carter
3. Susan B. Palmer
4. D. Browder
5. M. Agran
6. Lynn G. Sisco
7. Michael Cavin
8. C. Hughes

Citations in the corpus

• Access to the General Curriculum of Middle School Students with Mental Retardation (2003, background): “Agran, Alper, and Wehmeyer (2002) asked teachers questions about their perception of the access requirements for their students with severe disabilities.”
• Effects of Peer Support Interventions on Students' Access to the General Curriculum and Social Interactions (2005, background): “Researchers and educators need to identify effective instructional strategies that promote academic progress for students with severe disabilities within the general curriculum (Agran et al., 2002; Harrower & Dunlap, 2001).”
• Evidence-Based Practices for Students with Severe Disabilities and the Requirement for Accountability in “No Child Left Behind” (2003, background): “In a survey conducted by Agran, Alper, and Wehmeyer (2002), special education teachers ranked grooming, social, communication, choice-making, and problem-solving skills as more important than academic skills in creating access to the general curriculum for their students with severe disabilities.”
• Teachers’ Views of Their Preparation for Inclusive Education and Collaboration (2017, background): “Similarly, Agran, Alper, and Wehmeyer (2002) found that teachers viewed social skills and communication skills as most important for students with significant disabilities to learn (Agran et al., 2002).”
• Teachers' Perspectives on Literacy Instruction for Students with Severe Disabilities Who Use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (2011, background): “As Agran et al. (2002) noted, BTeachersImay not think access to the general curriculum is important for their students since they may neither understand what their students can gain from it or how it can be done[ (p. 129).”
• Participation of Students with Moderate to Severe Disabilities in the General Curriculum: The Effects of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (2006, background): “For example, Agran et al. (2000) taught 19 students with severe disabilities to use the model to achieve transition-related outcomes. Target behaviors included following directions, improving job task performance, improve budgeting skills, independently making transportation arrangements, and improv”
• Promoting Access to the General Curriculum by Teaching Self-Determination Skills (2004, background): “Agran, Alper, and Wehmeyer (2002) found an important reason to account for such limited effort.”
• Including High School Students with Severe Disabilities in General Education Classes: Perspectives of General and Special Educators, Paraprofessionals, and Administrators (2006, background): “Examples of instructional priorities (e.g., Agran & Alper, 2000; Hanrahan, Goodman, & Rapagna, 1990), barriers to inclusion (e.g., Agran et al., 2002; Copeland et al., 2002), benefits of inclusion (e.g., Copeland et al., 2004; Salend & Garrick Duhaney, 1999), risks associated with inclusion (e.g.,…”
• Seven Reasons to Promote Standards-Based Instruction for Students with Severe Disabilities: A Reply to Ayres, Lowrey, Douglas, & Sievers (2011) (2012, unknown): “As Agran, Alper, and Wehmeyer (2002) and Agran, Cavin, Wehmeyer, and Palmer (2010) note, access to general curriculum does not mean only teaching state standards.”
• Peer Supports as an Alternative to Individually Assigned Paraprofessionals in Inclusive High School Classrooms (2007, background): “…and qualitative research (e.g., Carter, Hughes, et al., 2005; Schnorr, 1997), and studies of educator and paraprofessional training needs (Agran et al., 2002; Carter & Hughes, 2006) underscore the need for support and facilitative strategies that have been empirically validated in…”